"Chou!" Li Meirong didn't take much notice to the plant spirit's warning rustle, as she was too busy being excited over the fact her little companion had finally woken.
Feng Huang's ruby-crystal shell rattled from surprise. She had thought, at this point, that there would be no more surprises, yet another popped out of nowhere!
The hovering turtle saw how Li Meirong bent down and gently picked up the little plant spirit, taking it into her palms with gentle care, ceasing to acknowledge Feng Huang's existence entirely. The girl was nodding her head as though she received some sort of response, and greeted the plant with sheer joy. Obviously, there was some non-verbal communication happening.
'So, this is her spirit plant…' Feng Huang's eyes darkened, taking on the shade of dried blood. She couldn't help the bitterness she felt at the thought. Her treasure trove had already been plundered…
"Are you sure you're fine? That vile man cut off your precious vine!" Li Meirong babbled in concern.
After receiving a non verbal confirmation from the plant spirit that he was well again, she leapt straight into telling him what he had missed. "Oh, Chou, you don't know what happened next! Snowball turned into a huge fox to defend me, and then when he tried to tackle Sheng Jing Wu, that nasty man disappeared in a puff of smoke! He popped up right behind me and dropped me into the volcano!"
Chou lifted a forest-green leaf from each of his regrown vines, and covered his little body as if hiding a 'gasp' of surprise. 'Oh, no, Master! How did you manage to stay alive?'
"Somehow, when I fell into the lava, a blue flame surrounded me and protected me from it," Li Meirong rambled on. "Then I was absorbed into a barrier under the lava which Feng Huang created and then, next we knew, both of us were in this dimension!" Her words tumbled over each other as she told her story.
"The dimension claims it belongs to me, but I'm not sure. It gave me food and drink, but couldn't offer me headache pills or a mobile phone. After I found that out, I went to explore the rooms in this building and found a library with heaps of cultivation manuals… oh! And I finally cultivated for the first time, though I nearly died trying. I owe Feng Huang a lot, she guided my consciousness when I was lost."
Chou was already used to his Master's strange, uncommon vocabulary. By now he was already familiar with the peculiar things she talked about, such as 'cars' and 'toilet seats', and now these 'mobile phones.'
Needless to say, he paid it no heed. Li Meirong kept singing praises about this 'Feng Huang' creature, but Chou couldn't see any vermillion bird around.
Perhaps his Master had named another poor creature with one of her odd ideas?
Chou swiftly turned his green figure around and glared at the sullen reptile floating nearby. 'Ah, found it. This must be Feng Huang!'
The reptile stared back at him with what Chou could only describe as envy.
This turtle was bad news, he immediately knew, and his Master must have been gullible enough to fall for her tricks.
Well, not while he was around!
Ever since Chou had lost a 'limb', and had needed to take a rest, he had worked hard to restore his missing vine. And, to his great surprise, as he had continued to cultivate inside Li Meirong's dimension, he had received a great boon, his spiritual level had ascended yet again.
Chou had also noticed his Master's dimension was rich with spiritual essence, which could only be expected of his Master with her godly aura!
If only his Master wasn't so silly, she could have already been a cultivator, one with enough power to become a force to be reckoned with. He shook from side to side at the depressing thought.
Up until now, Chou could only communicate with other plants and Li Meirong, since she was his blood-contracted Master. He was able to understand the speech of others, but was unable to speak back. As for his vision, he could only make sense of shapes, and view other living organisms' energy flow, but not truly see.
However, finally, it was time for a change!
He had become a high-ranked plant spirit using Li Meirong's special blood; it was capable of increasing a being's cultivation, and combined with her dimension's rich spiritual essence, it was truly only a matter of time for efforts such as his to bear fruit.
Becoming a high-ranked plant spirit came with many perks; at his current, unprecedented cultivation speed, it shouldn't even take too long for him to reach a human form.
Li Meirong's brows knitted into a frown as she noticed Chou's reaction to Feng Huang. Was he going to tell her not to include the turtle? Would he make another huge fuss as he did with Snowball?
"Little Chou, this is Feng Huang," she said, preemptively showing her stance on the matter. "Why don't we add her to our little family? It would be much livelier this way."
Feng Huang moved slightly to hide her expression, a mix of emotions clouding her ruby-red eyes. She had tried to use Li Meirong repeatedly, and yet the human girl still defended her. Wasn't this strange girl a perfect example of a candle shining for others at the cost of its own life, soon to be a pile of melted wax?
Guilt built up and weighed heavily in the turtle demoness' heart.
Honestly, Feng Huang had never had a good impression of humankind, yet seeing the way Li Meirong treated Chou, so generous, so kind, made her want to be treated the same way. Joining them as a little family didn't sound all that bad an option.
As Feng Huang remained absorbed in her own feelings, Chou was "upgrading" himself.
A pair of pitch-black eyes suddenly formed on the top part of his chubby little plant body. Two inches below that, a small hole formed. The hole grew bigger and stretched into a thin line, his 'glare' becoming a physical display of displeasure.
"Chou objects!" Chou's angry, youthful voice spoke out loud for the first time.
Li Meirong couldn't believe her senses, the little plant just grew a pair of eyes and mouth and talked!
"C-chou you…"
"Isn't Chou amazing? Chou grew strong enough to change shape!" Chou's thin mouth stretched further, turning into a little self-satisfied smirk.
"That's incredible, little Chou! Good job!" The man-eating plant teetered a little on Li Meirong's palms, puffing up proudly.
Li Meirong was astounded, but also incredibly happy. She was brimming with joy, tears of happiness forming in her eyes. A sense of pride welled up inside her. She felt like her own child had just come home from school with a perfect test score.
She knew that it was harder, much harder for plant spirits to gain the ability to change their forms, in comparison to animal spirits. It required at least twice the work.
Thus, it was incredibly rare to encounter a spirit plant of such a high level as Chou. He was probably the only one in the sect capable of such a feat!
But why was he so against Feng Huang joining them?
"Chou, this is great! I know you oppose it, but don't you think that, now we have both grown stronger, we could consider adding another to the family—" She tried to convince him to change his mind, but was cut off.
"No, Master! Chou knows that Master is a little silly, so Chou will think for both of us this time! It's bad enough Master picked up the evil fox, but now you want an tricksy turtle too? No. No, no! Chou does not allow!"
Chou had no eyebrows, but his narrowed eyes and the curve of his mouth were enough to portray his evident displeasure. He sounded no different than a mother scolding her unruly daughter.